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March tourist arrivals fall 7.4%, hurting hotel rates

SINGAPORE — Tourist arrivals in March fell 7.4 per cent to 1.2 million from a year ago, fuelled by a sharp drop in Chinese and Indonesian holidaymakers, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) yesterday.

SINGAPORE — Tourist arrivals in March fell 7.4 per cent to 1.2 million from a year ago, fuelled by a sharp drop in Chinese and Indonesian holidaymakers, said the Singapore Tourism Board (STB) yesterday.

China and Indonesia are two of Singapore’s largest tourism markets.

When compared with year-on-year figures, the number of Chinese tourists fell 21 per cent to 130,811, while the figure for Indonesian travellers fell 14.2 per cent to 211,338 in March.

Between January and March, visitorship figures dropped 6.1 per cent to 3.6 million.

The drop in arrivals comes on the back of repeated declines in the months before. Tourist arrivals shrunk 6.9 per cent in January and 4 per cent in February from the same period a year ago.

Hotel occupancy and average room rates were also affected.

Luxury, upscale and mid-tier hotels saw a respective decline of 5.5, 1.2 and 1.5 percentage points in occupancy rate in March from a year ago. Occupancy rates for budget offerings, however, held steady at 80.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, the average room rate for all categories of hotels fell. Rooms in luxury hotels and upscale hotels were cheaper by 2.4 per cent to S$439.40 and 3.1 per cent to S$262.10 respectively.

Mid-tier options fell 6.3 per cent to S$179.70, whereas budget hotels dipped by 3.5 per cent to S$102.30.

The decline in tourist arrival figures come on the heels of a dismal 2014 for the tourism sector. Arrivals fell 3.1 per cent — the first decline since 2009 — and spending remained flat compared with the previous year.

The STB had said earlier that it expected visitor arrivals to grow by up to 3 per cent this year, and tourism receipts to increase by as much as 2 per cent.

To attract more tourists, the STB is launching a S$20 million global marketing campaign, leveraging on Singapore’s Golden Jubilee, in key markets such as China, India, Japan, Vietnam and Indonesia.

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